War Games

by Nikita Thorn

  He was less than four feet away, when the ghost samurai finally twisted its wrist for a diagonal downward slash. This was the cue he had been looking for. Seiki dropped to his knees and activated his second Slide as soon as they touched the tatami floor. The long blade swished down at his torso, and Seiki drew his Kohagane dagger with both hands and Parried.

  His aim was almost perfect. The dagger connected near the base of the nodachi. As soon as he felt the impact, he released his grip around the weapon. His position meant the Parry had been at an awkward angle, and the force of the connection left a long streak of numb up both his arms as the dagger flew off his hands. But that had put Seiki right where he needed to be.

  Pushing his left knee forward and twisting his body to the right effectively spun him around in a tight turn as the Slide was still propelling him ahead. Without the dagger, his hands were free to grab hold of the ghost samurai’s sword wrist before it could turn around for another slash.

  As expected, since the Yureimusha’s attack would have otherwise been fatal, the Parry had dropped Seiki’s remaining energy to zero, but what came next did not require energy.

  His hands closed around the samurai’s black handguard as he sprang from the floor and pushed all his weight down on the Yureimusha’s wrist—forcing it down onto the floor. A man would have toppled, but the ghost body simply bent at the waist in an awkward posture like a broken scarecrow.

  “Trap!” Seiki cried.

  Yamura had been waiting. A hunting trap landed around Seiki’s hands, but since he was in the same group as the ryoushi, he felt nothing as the teeth snapped shut around the ghost warrior’s wrist.

  Arrows whisked, piercing the Yureimusha on its back. Without having to be prompted, the two bandits had rushed into the room and joined the combat, running into melee range.

  Daisuke [Level 15] has joined your group.

  Right before he reached the half-trapped guardian, the ninja Makino disappeared for a brief moment as he activated his Shadow Strike.

  Makino [Level 14] has joined your group.

  “Keep up the Traps,” Seiki said.

  Makino appeared beside him as Seiki landed a bare-handed strike on the ghost warrior, before drawing his dagger. The Yureimusha, with its sword arm held in place on the floor, swung its left arm over its head at Seiki, and the ninja yelped as he Shadow Striked again to disappear for a split second to avoid the blow.

  Seiki finally noticed that the Yureimusha’s left armguard was different. Instead of black leather, it was black metal, with small spikes protruding from it. The guardian was, after all, also built for close unarmed combat.

  Rolling out of the way, Seiki drew his Hikari and stabbed forward with a Focused Strike. He did not have enough energy to follow through with an Upslash to achieve his burst, nor was he in the correct position to do so, being on his side.

  Yureimusha [East City Bandits – Level 23]. HP 5423/6606.

  The two ryoushi’s fully-charged Focused Shots were chipping away at its health. And with Yamura being Level 16, each of his arrows that connected was doing nearly half a thousand points in damage. Makino closed in once more and plunged his named dagger into the ghost warrior’s exposed back. With Assassin’s Stab bypassing all armor, the ability also took a sizeable chunk of health. Seiki got to his feet and struck downward again as soon as he could.

  “Traps!” Seiki reminded his team mates, and almost at once two more Traps landed on the ghost warrior’s sword arm. “Keep renewing them if you can.”

  Yureimusha [East City Bandits – Level 23]. HP 3552/6606.

  With its free left arm, the ghost made a swing at Makino, missing the ninja by only a few inches. Seiki ran in and sent his Hikari directly down to pin down its other arm, aiming for a slim opening between its handguard and armguard. The blade was met with invisible resistance, like when opposite magnet poles were pressed together. So Seiki pushed some energy downward, allowing his Hikari to finally pierce through until it entered deep into the tatami mat and hit the rock floor underneath.

  Like an experienced warrior, the Yureimusha stayed perfectly silent. But before Seiki could ask for more ryoushi Traps, something screeched in his consciousness. It was noiseless, but strangely and gratingly high-pitched, like the sensation of thin nails on chalkboard, sending shivers down his spine. The Traps on both its arms burst open with simultaneous sharp clacks.

  “What?” Chika squealed from outside the room. “It has a Shout?”

  Seiki could only guess that a ghost version of samurai Battle Shout sounded like what he just heard. Like a Battle Shout, this variation broke the user from most movement-impairing effects. The Yureimusha suddenly sprang up like a puppet, throwing Seiki off its back. Someone let out a loud curse. The ghost warrior was free, with four targets right in melee range. Before anyone could react, it spun around with both its hands on the sword. The wide horizontal slash caught Makino directly across the chest.

  The ninja dropped lifelessly to the ground without a whimper, while a trail of blood splashed in a long line across the shoji wall on one side. Daisuke let out a cry as he scrambled out of the way.

  “That’s enough,” Gin said. “I’ll invite.”

  Gin of the East City Bandits invites you to a group.

  Seiki jumped to his feet as soon as he landed on the tatami floor. With the meager amount of energy that had recharged, he burst out in another Slide. The ghost samurai had flung off his Hikari stuck in its arm, and the sword had flown to the other side of the room. Against a high-level swordsman, however, a sword might not be the best idea right now. Ducking beneath the nodachi as the Yureimusha spun around to take a swipe at Yamura, Seiki tackled it as hard as he could. Being a ghost, it really weighed nothing, and as they crashed once more onto the floor, Seiki pressed his knee down on its elbow, keeping its sword arm secure.

  “Trap!” he shouted again, and Yamura—who had fallen backward when he avoided the slash—scrambled to his feet and tossed one right onto the ghost’s neck. The metal teeth eerily snapped shut around its headgear, but inflicted no damage. Another Trap from Daisuke landed on its sword arm once again.

  “Just accept the invite and it will stop attacking,” Gin was shouting, but caught in battle frenzy, no one was listening anymore. Another Focused Shot from one of the ryoushi pierced the ghost on its neck.

  As a precaution, Seiki kept himself on the Yureimusha. The ghost samurai let out another of its unholy Battle Shout, and the Traps burst off its body again. As the ghost sprang upright, Seiki wrapped his arm around its neck as it threw him off, and that once more took it down to the ground.

  Now that it was facing up, the Yureimusha lifted its sword and struck backward with perfect precision, even without eyes to turn to see with. Seiki gritted his teeth as he twisted to avoid the blade as much as he could without letting go. The icy nodachi blade sliced through his thigh guard and drew blood. The level difference was significant, and the gash, which was not even very deep, instantly took almost three quarters of his health.

  Seiki grunted when the Yureimusha drew back its sword in order to stab again. Daisuke’s trap on its shoulder did not stop the arm from moving; but as the sword descended, the ryoushi managed to shoot an arrow through its sword arm, making its second attack at Seiki miss by a few inches.

  “Hey!” said Yamura.

  Seiki glanced up to see the ryoushi tossing him a small ceramic bottle across the room. The bluish cloth cap marked it as an energy potion. There was no time to wonder where Yamura had gotten it, and Seiki downed the potion in a single gulp.

  Energy rushed through him in the most welcoming manner, in time for him to use a bare-handed Focused Strike on the ghost’s sword wrist to deflect its next backward thrust. He hoped it would somehow force the thing to let go of the deadly sword, but the nodachi seemed to be a permanent part of the creature, and the force of the blow simply pushed its arm around in a humanly impossible position. The sword, buried in floor, slashed t
hrough the tatami in a wide circle.

  Daisuke had already tossed another Trap onto the ghost’s neck, copying Yamura’s earlier idea.

  “Seiki,” said Yamura again. The ryoushi was still letting loose rapid arrows, but was appearing to be conserving the last quarter of his energy, so the arrows were missing more than not. With that being said, he had slowly backed up until he was standing by the fallen Hikari. The moment Seiki looked up, Yamura kicked the sword toward him, just as the ghost warrior let out another nerve-wracking Shout to free itself.

  Yureimusha [East City Bandits – Level 23]. HP 1575/6606.

  Seiki caught the sword sliding across the floor. At point blank, he was in too close to attempt a good burst combination. Technically, a single Upslash would probably do decent damage, but that was not what the group needed right now, and he knew someone else had a better tool to finish this thing off.

  Shooting his energy down both his arms before the Shout’s trap-bursting effect could throw him off the ghost warrior, Seiki stabbed his two-second Vertical Spike stun directly where its feet would have been.

  “It’s below a quarter health,” he reminded the ryoushi as the move temporarily froze the Yureimusha in place.

  Two Traps immediately landed on it, from both ryoushi, and Yamura ran in with his hunting knife drawn. It was rare that a ryoushi got to draw their blade, but once the conditions were met, of having their target under a quarter health and in their Trap, they could inflict substantial melee damage. With his Finish, Yamura gored the Yureimusha once again through its neck. At the last second, Daisuke had also managed to get in an arrow, and Seiki pulled his Hikari up in an upward slash as his Stun ended.

  There was half a second of silence, before the guardian exploded into black smoke.

  Yureimusha [East City Bandits] defeated. 1,244 XP gained.

  Seiki drew a deep breath, only now noticing that his heart had been racing, and his brows were covered in sweat. The room felt very quiet, before joyous colors burst out in his consciousness.

  Congratulations! You have reached Level 15. HP increased to 1338. Max energy increased to 574. New ability slot available.

  Blinking in surprise, Seiki inhaled deeply as he waited for the smoke to clear and for the instant happiness and silent voices of celebration to finish coursing through his brain. His health had automatically refilled, as well as his energy, and since this was the most energy he had experienced so far, he almost felt as if he could go and deal a thousand percent damage to demons right now. As much as he hated to admit it, leveling always felt darn good.

  “Grats,” shouted Chika from outside the room, reminding Seiki where he was and what he was doing.

  Gin was standing by the door. Next to him was Makino, who had resurrected once more and whose sandals had dropped to a mere 1% in durability. Both of them looked a little dumbfounded at what had just occurred.

  The bandit leader opened his mouth as if to say something, but closed it again perhaps as nothing came to mind. “That… reaction,” he said finally.

  “What?” Yamura smirked. “Never seen MMA before?”

  A purely fantasy version of it, perhaps. Seiki hid a smile as he turned to look at his friend. The ryoushi was sheathing his large hunting knife, which Seiki had actually never seen drawn before this day, looking very pleased with himself.

  Daisuke, with his bow still in his hand, had on a thoughtful expression. “You enhanced your Finish?” he asked Yamura.

  “No. I enhanced my Extreme Focus, so that it can be used on anything.” Yamura shrugged. “The 50% extra energy’s kinda not worth it, though. I’m actually thinking of switching it out, because it just drains your energy. But, man, that right there was kinda cool, wasn’t it?”

  “Oh, yeah, it feels great to finally be able to kill that thing.” Daisuke grinned in satisfaction.

  Leaving the ryoushi to discuss their class abilities, Seiki turned his attention to the small pile of items on the ground.

  Like the bandits had said, it was clear that a lot of materials had gone into the making of the guardian. The fifth that had dropped as loot consisted of a few orbs, plus a few more interesting items.

  Shadow Essence. Ingredient.

  Spirit Essence [x2]. Ingredient.

  Blood Essence. Ingredient.

  Windtamer’s Chest Guard. +18 defense. +86 dodge. Chest slot.

  Tsuyoji Weapon-Strengthening Scroll. Adds +8 attack to a melee weapon. 24% success chance.

  Saiwa Potion of Luck. Increases dodge by +34 for the next 20 seconds.

  Shadow-woven Tabi: +1 defense. Inner feet slot. Effect: puts a layer of shadow over the wearer’s feet, making them look like an apparition and allowing them to walk through physical traps on the ground. Only works when the outer feet slot is empty.

  All of a sudden, Chika dashed past them. A large wooden chest had silently materialized at the end of the room, and the ninja girl quickly opened it with a pin prick and a drop of blood. Throwing off the lid, Chika let out a relieved sigh. “Okay, named sword’s still here,” she reported. “And…ugh, these dang essences.” She ruffled through the chest, tossing out a few orbs of various shades, which rolled off to the side. “Potion, potion, handguard…”

  She moaned. “We lost the obake charm.”

  It turned out that apart from the random fifth that dropped as loot, another random fifth of the ingredients that went into the guardian permanently disappeared once it was killed. The rest went into a special box that was blood-locked to whoever had used the Scroll of Spirit-Binding to create the guardian in the first place.

  “We’re not going to need the charm anymore.” Gin, still at the doorway, turned to Seiki. “Instead, we might need someone to… come with us to the invasion.” His voice betrayed a tinge of hope.

  “The ghost samurai has nearly a second delay between each sword attack,” Seiki told the bandit.

  “Right,” Gin said, sounding slightly confused as to why it was relevant.

  “So for the encounter, if one of you can take a hit and someone just tackles it from behind, with eight people it shouldn’t be too difficult. Especially if you’re properly geared.”

  “Still,” said Gin slowly as his mind started to formulate a business plan. “It would be much easier for us if the task was handled by someone with… experience. We can negotiate the payment.” He smiled and his voice brightened. “Can I interest you in an unclaimed named blade, mister ronin?”

  “Gin!” cried Chika in protest. “We’re still paying for that thing!”

  Seiki would be lying if he were to say he was not tempted, but he shook his head. As satisfying the thought was of helping the bandits invade the Rogami territory, he wondered if he really wanted to be directly involved in the heist and perpetuate any further this enmity—particularly now that the Rogami was starting to forget about him.

  “No,” said Seiki, with some effort. “We’ll be happy enough with this.” He nodded toward the pile of items in the middle of the room. “As you said, if we killed the guardian, we could keep whatever dropped.” Even without the named blade, all these items, split fairly between him and Yamura, would mean his rent was taken care of for at least a few months.

  Gin sighed. “Unfortunately, I have a reputation to maintain, which forces me to be a bandit of my word. So, yes, all that’s yours.”

  “And when can I expect this visit from Hatsuo?”

  Gin sighed again. “Don’t you hate it when you have stuff under Accounts Payable?” he muttered. “Well, give me two weeks. He’s not on all the time, and he might need some convincing.”

  It was longer than he had hoped, but Seiki supposed there was no other way, so he simply nodded.

  When he turned back toward Yamura again, his friend had on a strange look.

  “I know you did most of the work, but that chest guard…” Yamura began.

  “Take it,” Seiki said.

  Yamura could not grab the Windtamer’s Ches
t Guard from the floor fast enough. “Thanks, man! The rest is totally yours.” It was a lightweight hardened leather piece, dyed light gray, with metal-enforced straps to tie over the shoulders. “This dodge. Eighty-six! I’ve never seen anything this high.”

  High dodge allowed players to avoid physical ranged abilities. The chest guard was a nice piece, but its rather low base defense was actually less useful for Seiki, who most of the time had to deal with close melee combat.

  Daisuke was observing Yamura, apparently in slight envy. “Wait a minute,” he said. “You don’t even have an inventory bag. Where did you get that potion from?” He was referring to the energy potion that had mysteriously found its way into Yamura’s possession during the fight, which had probably saved Seiki at the right moment.

  “Oh, that was yours,” Gin told his clan mate.

  “What?” cried Daisuke. “How? You couldn’t have Pickpocketed.”

  Yamura smiled as he looked at Seiki. “I looted it when he died after crashing through the door,” he said. “In case we had to fight our way out.” He then turned to the bandit. “You had a few potions on you, but I only took one so you wouldn’t notice.”

  Daisuke cursed. Chika did the same, once she realized what had happened. “I was right there beside him,” said the ninja girl to her clan leader. “And I didn’t see it.”

  “Me neither,” said Gin. “I only understood when I found that he had it. Do you start to see now, mister ryoushi, why I keep saying you might be in the wrong clan?”

  Luckily, Yamura seemed too pleased with his gear to be annoyed. “Nice doing business with you,” he grinned, taking off his Shinshioka set piece and strapping on the new chest armor, which discreetly adjusted to fit him. “Now you can’t change your mind.”

  Without an inventory bag, the unequipped gear had nowhere to go, and so Yamura handed it to Seiki, who put it in his bag, alongside the rest of the loot.